COMMUNITY COMMENTARY
by Sue Wagoner
As a young girl living in Spanish B Camp on the Puunene Sugar Planation life was simple, humble and fun. We could romp and play all day and no one bothered us. I never knew of a child being molested or of a policeman being required in the camps. If we were fortunate enough to meet a stranger, we would talk to them and ask,“ Where you Stay?” The dusty roads and cane fields were our playgrounds and we investigated every nook and cranny from the school yard to the grave yard. When we were hungry we had a wide choice of mangos, guavas, papayas and bananas that grew on the sides of the roads or even those that hung over the hedges in people’ s yards. Our greatest treat was finding a cane stalk that had fallen off a cane car. I have sweet memories of the sweet warm juices as I munched on the cane. I frequently visited my grandmother who lived in Camp A. When I arrived she would sit me down and wash my dusty bare feet with her special Hawaiian scrubbing stone. We would then have tea and
Unlocked Doors
grandmother would tell me all sorts of stories. My favorite story was about Queen Liliuokalani. When grandmother was a young girl, she was selected to be one of the flower girls in the Queen’ s Parade in Lahaina. She described the beautiful garment the Queen wore that day. Years later I recreated that garment, with the help of Bishop Museum and I used that garment in my monarchy fashion shows. As a youngster I was keenly aware that the plantation provided our basic needs including, housing, electricity, water, refuse service, kerosene for our Franklin cooking stove, chopped wood for our hot baths and full medical care. I often wondered who that marvelous man was who did all this for his workers. I had heard my father rave about his generosity. It was a rare thing to see an automobile on our dusty road, however, one day my curiosity was satisfied when I spotted a long black shiny car coming towards me. In the back seat of this chauffeur driven car, sat Mr. Frank F. Baldwin, President and General Manager of the sugar plantation. He looked so regal as his chauffeur, Masaru Fukushima, slowly drove past me. My little dream world continued until one day in 1949 I heard rumblings that the sugar mill had become unionized. The first thing that happened was that the workers were charged $ 18 a month for rent. Then slowly all the other special benefits disappeared. The thing I missed most was we no longer had Christmas parties. Previously the plantation would provide each child with a brown paper bag containing a mainland orange and apple, mixed nuts and candies. In memory, we only had mainland fruit, apples and oranges, at Christmas time. There were no physical boundaries in my little world. I did have the invisible boundaries of respect, kindness and above all else honesty. I simply refused to hurt, steal or be unkind to another human being. Throughout these many camps, I didn’ t know of one family who locked their doors. At the same time, they hung a key on the wall next to the front door. Today I know that this key symbolized ownership of the home and at the same time – trust in human beings.
WISE WORDS
“ If you can’ t make them see the light, make them feel the heat.”-Ronald Reagan
Pono Press, June 2013, Page 8